On the Chopping Block : Edison Co. Plans to End Leases With Tree Farmers

Piggybacking his granddaughter with a bow saw in hand, Christmas tree connoisseur Kevin Nagle roams the rows of the Lyon’s Christmas Tree Farm in Rosemead as part of an annual attempt to experience life as a lumberjack.

Candidates for the Nagle family Christmas tree must be full-figured, come close, but not too close, to the ceiling of his Temple City home and have at least three good sides since the timber will stand in a very visible corner of the living room.

Cutting down a Christmas tree is as much a part of the Nagle family Christmas tradition as Santa Claus. But by the time of Jesus’ 2,000th birthday, finding a cut-your-own tree farm in Los Angeles and Orange counties will be almost as tough as finding a gnatcatcher.

The Christmas tree farms are an endangered species in Southern California now that owners of nearly half the tree farms in both counties were informed by landlord Southern California Edison this year that their property licenses will not be renewed when they expire. For many farmers this is the last year they will do business; others have been warned by Edison not to plant more trees this year, as they will lose their farms when the leases run out over the next few years.

Although not every choose-and-cut farm is on Edison property, the majority of these family-owned businesses have been longtime tenants of the utility company. Many say the land is perfectly suited for agriculture and is the only affordable farmland in Los Angeles. Of the 16 Christmas tree farms in Los Angeles County and 20 in Orange County, about half will lose their land, along with many of Edison’s 5,000 agricultural and horticultural tenants in Southern California.

Dennis Proud, who owns one of the oldest Christmas tree farms in Orange County, said he was forced into retirement because of Edison’s decision not to renew the lease at his Anaheim farm.

“This is my last year after 31 years,” Proud said. “Christmas won’t be the same. I’ve enjoyed seeing the families and the kids who come here. I’ve known three generations of people.

“One guy [in his 60s] told me the other day that he has been buying from me every year except one year.”

Edison officials say they are making changes on many of their property licenses as they look for ways to maximize profit so they can lower electricity rates. Revenue earned from the licenses goes toward offsetting electricity rates, which are among the highest in the nation, Edison officials said. Furthermore, the company argues that the pressure is on to be more competitive since the California Public Utilities Commission’s recent decision to deregulate the state power industry.

“Property values have changed and that has nothing to do with Edison. Decisions are being made that reflect those changes,” Edison spokesman Kevin Kelley said. “We realize that doesn’t make the transition any easier, but Edison has an obligation to get the best return for ratepayers.”

Not all of Edison’s tenants are immediately threatened. The farms hardest hit by the power company’s move are those near shopping centers and on major thoroughfares, where more profitable uses can be found for the land. The South Bay Christmas Tree Farm on Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance, the last do-it-yourself lot in the South Bay, closed its doors Saturday after 30 years in business, and Cuehlo’s Top Quality in Lakewood, a 20-year-old farm, is expected to shut down by year-end along with Santa’s Forest in Paramount.

“These trees are living things and a whole bunch of them are going to go to waste,” Jerry Eckberg, owner of the South Bay Christmas Tree Farm, said sadly. “I tried to fight this thing but I got too tired; I decided it was time to close.”

Mark Winn, who has owned the Olde Tyme Christmas Tree Farm in Orange for 16 years, said he was trying to give away his trees so they wouldn’t go to waste. On Friday, he opened up the farm for charity organizations to cut down trees for free, he said.

About 4,000 trees were left Friday on the 4.5-acre farm in the 1500 block of North Main Street when Edison bought out the crop at “pennies to the dollar” to make way for another tenant, Winn said.

“I have a lot of people who have been coming here for years,” he said. “They want to know where they are going to go for Christmas trees next year and I don’t know what to tell them.”

Proud, the Anaheim farmer, began growing Christmas trees in 1964, after he and a fellow firefighter read an article about the business and wanted to make some money on the side.

Their business, in the 1600 block of Lewis Street, grew to an eight-acre farm with as many as 5,000 trees. The farm shrank to about an acre this year, with about 1,000 Christmas trees, because of high maintenance costs, Proud said.

“Back when my partner and I got into the business, [Edison] was bending over backward to help us. They would even offer to help us finance it,” he said. “Now, they just want more and more money. . . . We can’t afford to do this anymore.”

It takes almost five years for a Monterey pine to reach full size and many farmers are angry about losing several years’ worth of harvest. Edison officials say the license issued to farmers has a 30-day clause that allows the utility giant to cancel the license, but in most cases farmers have been given two to three years’ notice.